The
Lord's Prayer
Our Father who art
in heaven.
hollowed
be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in
heaven.
Give us this day our
daily bread,
and forgive us our
trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
Lead us not into
temptation,
but deliver us from
evil.
For thine is the
kingdom, the power,
and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
It’s been a
little over a year since I began to blog on the Lord’s Prayer. During that time I
have prayed this prayer daily, sometimes multiple times throughout
the day. I need to explain that I am not from a tradition that makes
use of written liturgy. Although as a child I was exposed to some
traditions that did. From my point of view repeating the same words
over and over was considered “dead works” and “vain repetition”.
About a year ago I began to wonder about the prayers that Jesus prayed.
This led me to consider that the book of Psalms were prayers that
were most likely used by Jesus. So, I began to read “prayerfully” as I read through the Psalms. During these times I could “hear”,
in the back of my mind, the “voice of Jesus” reading them with me
from time to time. Not a literal audible voice but one that was
unmistakably reading the Psalms about himself. Sounds crazy doesn't
it? But I don’t know how else to describe it. It was like a dub
over, I was reading with my voice audibly but in my mind Jesus would
“highlight” some words and make them indelible on my heart.
This was the
experience that led me to reconsider praying the Lord’s Prayer. So
how do I describe this theologically? N.T. Wright has a great explanation so I will not attempt this but
refer you to his work.
I set out to blog
each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. I have laid it aside for a year
but I plan to continue this series very soon. I will be looking next
at the three indicatives (think commands) found in the first half of
the prayer.
